A Small Correction

In my ten year retrospective of the Iraq War, I asserted that the MiG-21’s 600-nautical mile range was “barely enough to escape Iraqi airspace.” When I wrote this, I was envisioning an airbase deep within the Iraqi desert. It has since occurred to me that, from an airstrip located on Iraq’s border, the MiG could clear Iraqi airspace by almost 600 nautical miles. Nevertheless, this doesn’t get the aircraft anywhere near the United States.